NEWS AND NOTES

News and notes from around the state

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SOUTHERN REGION

Brandon Elliott and Choral Arts Initiative performed a concert in November featuring the premiere of a commissioned 30-minute secular cantata, What Color is the Dawn?, for chorus and marimba by Del Mar-based composer Jordan Kuspa. The performance on November 17 also featured additional West Coast premieres by composers Andrew Maxfield, Edie Hill, and Elaine Hagenberg.

Retiring after this year, Michael Hayden, Director of Choirs at Mira Costa High School and 2014 California Teacher of the Year, and pianist Mark McCormick will take the 64-voice Mira Costa Festival Choir to Italy for Holy Week, April 3-13, 2020. They’ll begin by performing their first concert in Rome at Chiesa Sant’Agnese in Agone on Palm Sunday evening. The next day the MCHS Festival Choir will be singing Holy Monday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. The tour continues through Florence and Venice.

In fall 2019, Matthew Kellaway stepped into the interim choral music position at Fullerton College. Matthew is conducting the Fullerton College Men’s Chorale and Fullerton College Women’s Chorale, as well as the newly formed Musical Theatre Ensemble.

With a continuing passion for helping choristers to become musically literate, Karen Garrett has written Sight Singing for Festival Choirs. This course is aligned to the Choral Sight Reading Festival Adjudication Rubric available at SCVA Festivals, some Northern CMEA sections and four other states. The course is currently available for High School levels 1-3, with other levels and a Middle School volume in the works. The 12-week all-inclusive course is available at www.festivalmusicpress. com. Thank you, Karen, for making these music literacy materials available and accessible to all!

Donald Brinegar’s newly published book, Pitch Perfect: A Theory and Practice of Choral Intonation, is now available on Amazon. There will also be a Kindle version, a website with sound and video examples, and a teacher’s edition with lesson plans for AP music classes, undergraduate choral music classes, and graduate choral seminars. Don will be presenting on the topic of intonation at the ACDA Conference in Salt Lake City on March 6, 2020.

FAR SOUTH REGION

The Far South Region welcomed Dr. Arian Khaefi as the new director of choral studies at San Diego State University. Dr. Khaefi comes to San Diego after serving on the faculty at Fullerton College.

In October, the San Diego Master Chorale and Palomar College Chamber Singers (under the direction of John Russell) and the San Diego State University Symphony Orchestra (under the direction of Michael Gerdes) gave the San Diego premiere of Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. The program, titled “Truth and Reconciliation,” also featured a premier of Swedish composer Henrik Dahlgren’s “Son to Mother” on a text by Maya Angelou.

In November, the San Marcos Unified School District celebrated its 3rd annual Elementary Honor Choir with a culminating concert at Double Peak School. SMUSD’s Elementary Honor Choir is a 6-week program, including 3rd- through 5th-grade students from each of the district’s 12 elementary schools. Students audition and are chosen by their teachers to participate. The choir includes approximately 100 students. The SMUSD Honor Choir is under the direction of Pam Lindamood with pianist Suzy Bohling.

NORTHERN REGION

Ken Rawdon was the guest conductor and adjudicator for the Redding Choral Festival in November. Approximately 250 students worked on two selections together throughout the morning, followed by individual choir performances throughout the day. Deborah Divine accompanied throughout the morning, as well as for eight of the local choirs!

The California Music Educators Association recognized our Northern Section Representative, Alissa Aune, as the CMEA/Pearson/Scott Foresman/ Silver Burdett Choral Educator Award for 2020. She will receive her award at CASMEC in February 2020.

BAY AREA

Angel Vázquez-Ramos encouraged middle school students in Palo Alto to “feel what the words mean so your audience can be inspired by your sound.” Dr. Vázquez-Ramos visited seven classrooms and conducted an evening concert on October 2 featuring Palo Alto Unified School District’s choir students in grades 7-12.

Hundreds of singers attended the “Sound Off” at San Jose State in October and the Tenor-Bass Choral

Festival at CSU East Bay in November. These yearly events, each surpassing 300 singers, provide an opportunity for basses and tenors to refine their skills and enjoy singing together in a massed choir. The West Valley College Choirs (Lou De La Rosa, director) hosted the collaborative concert “Light Out of Darkness: A Choral Response to Violence” on October 25th with the choirs from Gilroy High School and Christopher High School. Volti, San Francisco’s professional choir dedicated to new music and led by Robert Geary, kicked off its 41st season with a concert titled “The Path of Miracles,” performed at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco on October 11. WomenSing, led by Ofer Dal Lal, premiered a commission by Shawn Kirchner, “The Light of Hope Returning,” on December 11 and 15. CENTRAL COAST REGION In the late spring of 2019, the Stevenson School Chamber Singers from Carmel were honored to sing in the Choirs of America Nationals for Top Choirs 2019 at Carnegie Hall, New York. This event included a choral exchange with other select U.S. and Canadian high school students, workshops with world-class clinicians, and a final performance with director/composer Z. Randall Stroope. Bravo to Willow Manspeaker for her inspired teaching and her dedicated singers. Swing Time. Congratulations to a well earned 18th place in the world at the Sweet Adeline International Competition in New Orleans. Courtney continues to invest her daytime hours inspiring her vocal jazz choir students at Dos Pueblos High School, Santa Barbara. Welcome to Maxim Kuzin, new director of the Chamber Choir at UC Santa Barbara! CENTRAL REGION The annual Messiah Sing-Along was held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Modesto including soloists and chamber ensemble under the direction of John Carter, recently retired from Columbia College in Sonora. The 2020 San Joaquin County High School Honor Choir met in early January at Delta College in Stockton, conducted by Polly Vasché of Modesto. The California State University Stanislaus Chamber Singers have been selected to appear in concert in February at CASMEC, conducted by Dr. Daniel Afonso. Abigail Sorber was the 2019 recipient of the Dr. Randi Carp CMEA Choral Music Education Scholarship. She was accepted to California State University Fullerton and is pursuing her dream of becoming a choral educator. Patrick Burzlaff completed his term as chair of the Central Region High School Honor Choirs. Thank you, Patrick, for your service and dedication!  ABOVE: Womensing and Condcutor Ofer Dal Lala received congratulations from composer Shawn Kirchner after their premiere of his commissioned work.

The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Choirs and Symphony are preparing for a performance tour of France in June 2020. Under the direction of Dr. Scott Glysson, they will perform in venues as La Madeleine Church in Paris, Bayeux Cathedral, Chateau Chambord, and other venues in Loire. Included in their tour concerts will be a new commissioned work by Stacey Gibbs, which will have its San Luis Obispo debut on their June 6 spring concert.

In Ventura, the Pacific Sound Men’s Chorus debuted their concert season with a new director, Courtney Anderson. Courtney is also the director of the women’s chorus Carpe Diem and a member of the exciting quartet Thanks to our Regional Representatives (Alissa Aune, Buddy James, Angel Vázquez-Ramos, Carolyn Teraoka-Brady, Tina Peterson, and John Russell) for collecting and sharing news from their areas! Send your news to your regional representative if you’d like to be included in a future issue.

30 • Cantate • Vol. 32, No. 2 • Winter 2020 California Choral Directors Association Bachelor of Arts • Bachelor of Music Master of Music • Artist Diploma New Graduate deGrees Offered IN MM Vocal Chamber Music & MM Pedagogy Music Scholarships & Graduate Assistantships Available Information and Applications www.redlands.edu/music 909-748-8014 music@redlands.edu University of Redlands ChOral faCulty Joseph Modica, Christopher Gabbitas, Nicholle Andrews VOICe faCulty Melissa Tosh, Marco Schindelmann, Patricia Gee, Cynthia Snyder, Donald Brinegar S h a r i n g m u s i c m e a n s s t r e n g t h e n i n g c o m m u n i t i e s , b u i l d i n g u n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d s p r e a d i n g j o y a n d p e a c e . A s fe l l o w m u s i c i a n s , w e k n o w c o n c e r t t o u r s h a v e t h e p o w e r d o j u s t t h a t . A s g l o b a l t r a v e l e x p e r t s , w e c a n h a n d l e t h e s p e c i a l n e e d s y o u h a v e o n t o u r . F o r o v e r 6 0 y e a r s , w e ' v e b e e n h e l p i n g g r o u p s c h a n g e t h e w o r l d . W e c a n h e l p y o u b e n e x t . MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. WE CAN HELP. 777 Grand Avenue, Suite 206 San Rafael, CA 94901 415 453 6619 | info@acfea.com acfea.com WST 601 273 533 | CST 2063085-40 Los Angeles Children's Chorus Young Men's Ensemble on tour in Cuba